Tech. in a Classroom Setting

Question: 

Do you think technology in the classroom encourages or hinders exploration or creativity in students?

Informational Sources:

• "Is Technology in Schools the Future or just a Fad" by Amy Hetzner
• TED Talk "Child Driven Education"

When I was a kid, as they still do today, computers always seemed to find new ways to amaze me. The newest technology was always sought after when it came out, and in some cases showed your "coolness level" in the hallways of middle school. Growing up out in a small country community in Springfield there generally were not many computers available, especially in the classroom. So when all us country kids hit middle school together and got the opportunity sometimes during the year to use a set of laptops, we were ecstatic. Why were we so excited? Because it was a new toy for us to play with, and the past normally had associated computers as fun things for games. Not for learning. Eventually we would find the use of a computer later on, but it would take several more years without the proper education about these technological tools.

After reviewing the article and the video of a TED talk both talking about how technology can be useful in the classroom, I came to an answer. Yes, technology should be used in classes to better education, but only at the right time and place for a students education. At an elementary age I believe that there should still be more hands on learning and imagination in the classroom. Some small educational programs could be used in order to assist in the learning, but maybe with the whole group instead of just one child. By the time a student would hit middle school he or she should have the knowledge to use searches to find useful information along with basic programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to help create better projects and papers. By high school age they should be allowed to all programs, and be able to use computers at their own discretion.

There are some key things that would need to be in place for this program though. First off the only classrooms that would have these computers, would be the teachers who were willing to put the time in to use them. A teacher who has been teaching for the last 15 years would not want to immediately change up their teaching methods, just because it's the new and hip thing to do. They like to be old fashioned. But those teachers would learn how to use the newer technology, I think, would find it to be a very useful tool in the classroom. Next, the drive has to be there from to students to learn. One of the best things that computers can help anyone with is creativity, so utilization of that is critical. Other than that, money has to be there and not wasted. With these a classroom could have the capability to use these helpful tools. 

All in all, I think that in the classroom the resources are there to use technology to our advantage to educate our youth, but the plan is not being used to it's full potential.